The Cormorant, the Dragonfly, and the Bee: May 2017

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Eyeball These

Mother's Day brought us to a place called "Fields of Flowers" in Westfield, Mass where we bought some plants for my mother-in-law. While Deb and her mom went around buying various perennials, I snapped a few shots.

Plant Glow

Believe it or not, there's a type of Ice Plant called Delosperma Fire Spinner. Is that like an oxymoron or something?

Fire and Ice

Fuchsia plants have incredibly highly saturated colors, including fuchsia, of course. It is a bit difficult to take a macro photo (without focus stacking) of a complete Fuchsia flower because it is a large flower and distance from the lens varies a lot. Here I decided to highlight the folds. If you sort of squint and look at the lower leftish side of this image you might see why I gave this photo the title I did.

Purple Heart

A lot of little explosions going on in this one:

White Sparklers

At this point, we returned to my in-laws' house to plant the newly purchased flowers. Deb does that part, and she's very good at it. Meanwhile I take pictures. The blue sky pulled me in to take this next shot of the wonderful Dogwood already residing on the property.

Dogwood Delight

Essence of Lilac

This little guy decided to visit next to Deb while she planted the flowers in the bed. Do you know the difference between a frog and a toad? In this case, the rough skin gives it away. This is a toad.

Jumping Visitor

This is a different shot where I got in closer. I'd guesstimate the toad was around 3 inches in length. I was glad he didn't decide to jump on my lens.

Had a Few Too Many

And, finally, an example of a planted plant, comfortable in its new location.

Purple Curls

Friday, May 19, 2017

Local Sightings

For today's post I have some garden photos as well as a few neighborhood captures acquired during a walk around the block.

This first photo is Euphorbia, not to be confused with Euphoria.

Talking Plant

Leafing Out

Red Lineup

Red Shades

Tippy

Hanging Grapes

Painted Lines

Dogwood Setting

Composition in Green

Recent Neighborhood Addition

Spray Blast

Trillium Cocktail

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Cell Phone Landscapes

Sometimes - shockingly - I don't bring my Olympus camera along for a Res. walk. In those situations, my cell phone, a Nexus 5x, is usually handy for that occasional shot.

As mentioned in an earlier post, many cell phones have great cameras and can take excellent photographs, especially with good available light. Cell phone cameras are generally very wide angle, which is quite handy for landscapes. Here are a few samples.

Sky Design

The water in this next photo is not the reservoir, but a different body of water nearby that feeds the res.

Log Perspective

Up High

At the res. again:

Surface

Not the res., but nearby:

Slide Zone

Thursday, May 11, 2017

The Garden That Doesn't Quit

I happen to know an excellent gardener who happens to live in the same house with me. Deb has done an amazing job finding beautiful plants, flowers, shrubs, and trees for our garden. I stroll outside almost every day, camera in hand, to see what I find that might look good in a photograph.

Today's post has some recent shots of a few favorite plants of ours.

All these photos were taken with my 60mm macro lens; they are taken handheld, and with natural light.

This first set of photos are of Solomon's Seal.

Hanging Seal Pods

Pods in Space

Solomon's Arch

Leaf Lines

Whoosh

Deb's sister, Carol, gave us some purple (sometimes called 'blue') phlox. It provides a wonderful ground cover in one of our garden areas. It is usually seen "en masse", but for this post I thought I'd get in a little closer:

Phlox Display

Phlox Cover

Phlox Above

Predator Among the Phlox

These next two are of a plant we got from Alison. We call it the "Alison plant".

Red Meets Green

Red Fingers

While the "Money plant", seen in these next photos, is mostly known for it's silver dollar shaped appendages, I find that its spring blooms are quite photogenic.

Joyful Money Plant

In addition to the fun shadow shape on the blade, the flat round seed pods for which the Money Plant gets its name can be seen in an early stage in this last photo.

Money Plant Making Shadow Designs

Thursday, May 4, 2017

Garden Flora

This spring I am finding I quite enjoy going into the garden and taking pictures every day. The garden just beckons, especially in the late afternoon sun.

These are all hand-held with my 60mm macro lens, in natural light.

Pink in the Garden

In this next photo, the powerfully strong sun backlighting caused the lens (and camera) to create a pleasant "lens flare" that appears as sweeping shadow lines in the background in the original out-of-camera capture.

Sunswept

Smoke Bush Textures

Smoky Red

Red on Display

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Macro Mardi

Macro Tuesday is not so alliterative, so I thought I'd throw in a little French to keep the theme going from yesterday's blog post. The Spanish "Martes" would have worked nicely as well. Thanks to Deb for the idea. Yes, though not a common event, we discussed the title of this blog post during breakfast this morning.

Bottom line is I have many more macro photos of spring buds and blossoms to share.

How about a lime green background! This is the way the "bokeh-ized" grass in the background came out of the camera. I understand lime green is this year's favorite designer color!

Purple Leaf Sand Cherry

Sand Cherry Blossoms

It has been fascinating to watch the progression of the Redbud buds: from red, to red and magenta, to red and magenta with white blossoms. Also, they are sparse no more.

Redbud Minnie Mouse Ears

Since deer love to eat tulips, Deb cut a few from outside and brought them in. This way we can enjoy them before they're suddenly gone. Turns out they grow and last just about as long inside as outside!
This next shot is indoors with regular room lighting at ISO 1600.

Tulip Colors

Back outside again...

Tulip Sex

Normally, I prefer a nice blue sky, but this day was completely cloud covered. These are cherry blossoms from a different cherry tree than the one appearing in my recent "Cherry Blossoms" post. I used an exposure compensation of plus 3 f-stops! This forces the sky to be solid white and brings in the shadow detail of the cherry blossoms.